Chapter 188: Adversary (7)

After delivering the Harmonization Scripture to Eunsong, Soyak descended Mount Hua.

She wanted to see for herself what was happening in the marketplace.

A crowd had gathered at the foot of the mountain, packed tightly around one section of a wall as they talked among themselves.

...It must be about the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering.

Soyak had deliberately taken her time walking down Mount Hua.

She could have used her Lightness Arts and descended in a single rush, but...

This was the first time she had truly seen Mount Hua again after three years of closed-door training.

When she first arrived, the plum blossoms that bloomed throughout all four seasons had meant little to her.

But beneath those blossoms, she had set out on her Roaming Pillar Journey.

Beneath those blossoms, she had taken part in the Ilji Gathering.

And beneath those blossoms...

She had cut down the Flame-Saber Lord, Ak Jupae.

Now, they meant something to her.

Excluding her years in seclusion, she had actually spent more time with the Gwak Household.

Yet she had never thought of that place as home.

Mount Hua, though...

Mount Hua felt as though it could become her second home.

The mountain was quieter than she remembered.

Probably because nearly all the third-generation disciples, most of whom had been in their mid-teens, were gone.

Now and then, senior Masters passing by glanced at her.

Soyak greeted every one of them with a respectful cupped-fist salute as she continued down the mountain.

Once she passed the foot of Mount Hua, the bustling marketplace spread out before her.

Soyak carefully slipped through the crowd.

Thanks to the Mount Hua plum blossom embroidered over the breast of her martial uniform, people made room rather than bumping into her.

They apparently had no idea that the girl before them was Cheon Soyak, the very person everyone in the marketplace was talking about.

That was understandable.

It was not as though people walked around with their names stitched onto their clothes.

And having a crowd swarm around her would only make things more inconvenient.

Soyak thanked those who stepped aside and made her way toward the densest part of the gathering.

Large notices had been pasted across the walls.

They announced the upcoming Dragon-Phoenix Gathering.

It would be held one month from now.

The only restriction on eligibility was that members of the unorthodox factions and the Demonic Cult were barred from participating.

Which meant...

Even those who did not belong entirely to the righteous factions would be accepted.

It was the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering. Outstanding young talents from across the Nine Provinces would gather there.

Among them, there were occasionally people who belonged neither to the righteous factions nor to the unorthodox factions nor to the Demonic Cult.

It would be more advantageous to embrace such people than reject them outright.

But Soyak had no interest in young talents from mysterious sects.

Only one thing mattered.

There was only one reason this Dragon-Phoenix Gathering was being held, as far as she was concerned.

And only one reason she intended to participate.

Namgung Seon.

She had to defeat him once again and firmly establish her own name.

The time when hiding could solve her problems had passed.

She needed to spread her reputation throughout the righteous factions so that the Sword Sovereign could no longer move against her carelessly.

Even if she had done nothing about the Flame-Saber Lord Ak Jupae...

The Sect Leader would ultimately have dealt with him.

There had been only one reason for Soyak to step in personally.

She needed fame now.

If she defeated Namgung Seon here and earned the reputation of being the number one young talent under heaven...

Even Sword Sovereign Namgung Ak would not be able to treat her however he pleased in public.

After the Ak Jupae incident, he would have taken an interest in her anyway.

And taking an interest meant investigating her birth and origins.

A family annihilated by a single word from the Sword Sovereign.

Parents murdered by Ak Jupae.

And the orphaned Heavenly Killing Star who had personally cut Ak Jupae down.

Without a proper reputation to protect her, the Sword Sovereign might attempt to make her disappear without a trace.

Of course, he could not simply send someone after her.

Ordinary assassins would be useless against someone who had reached the middle stage of the Transformation Realm.

...But what if the Sword Sovereign came himself?

Soyak, at the middle stage of the Transformation Realm, had killed the early-stage Flame-Saber Lord within only a few exchanges.

If the Sword Sovereign stood at the very end of the Transformation Realm—or perhaps had even touched the early Mysterious Realm...

He could probably kill Soyak before she managed to scream even once.

“Won’t the winner of this Dragon-Phoenix Gathering come from our Mount Hua?”

“Of course! Of course! They say Miss Soyak killed the Flame-Saber Lord Ak Jupae after he fell into the demonic path—in a single strike!”

“She killed an early-stage Transformation Realm master instantly... Doesn’t that mean she must have reached at least the middle stage of the Transformation Realm?”

“I heard she’s only seventeen... What a blessing for Mount Hua! A true blessing!”

The people around Mount Hua were already talking about Soyak.

Because she had killed the Flame-Saber Lord in what seemed like a single strike, information about her realm was already spreading far and wide.

Exactly as intended.

If rumors spread that she was at the middle stage of the Transformation Realm, the Sword Sovereign could not simply come and kill her without consequence.

From the fact that she had killed an early-stage Transformation Realm master in one stroke, people had already deduced that Soyak herself must have reached the middle stage.

Then...

What if someone at the middle stage of the Transformation Realm suddenly turned up dead one day, cut down by a blade?

There would be only one obvious suspect.

The number one sword under heaven, Sword Sovereign Namgung Ak, who stood at the very end of the Transformation Realm.

“Exactly! If Miss Soyak wins, more people will come through here too! Business will boom!”

“The winner of the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering always gets flooded with challengers!”

Of course, it would make no sense to think Namgung Ak would refrain from acting simply because he feared marketplace gossip.

But what if the victim were the winner of the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering?

Countless challengers would be left with nowhere to direct their questions and suspicions except toward the number one sword under heaven.

And then...

People would begin wondering why the Sword Sovereign, Alliance Leader and number one sword under heaven, had killed a mere young talent from Mount Hua.

Curiosity was poison.

And once poison dissolved into water, it began to spread.

There was no story that could draw more attention than the Sword Sovereign personally killing her.

No other rumor could bury something like that.

...Has Namgung Seon reached the Transformation Realm?

He too had apparently emerged after three years of closed-door training.

He had been two or three steps behind her before, but if his talent truly reached the heavens...

Soyak soon shook her head.

If Namgung Seon had reached the Transformation Realm, the Sword Sovereign would never have remained quiet.

More precisely, the Namgung Household would never have remained quiet.

They would already have spread word throughout the Nine Provinces that their successor had reached the Transformation Realm at such a young age.

Mount Tianzhu, Anhui Province.

The location was practically the Namgung Household’s own backyard.

Soyak turned around.

No matter what, if she was going to travel that far...

She first needed permission from her master and the Sect Leader.

*****

“...The Flame-Saber Lord Ak Jupae appeared at Mount Hua.”

“That is correct, Alliance Leader.”

Namgung Ak had recently been staying at the Namgung Household Main House.

As a result, whenever something important enough to require action from the Martial Alliance occurred, a messenger had to travel to the household.

It slowed the handling of affairs somewhat, but...

He could not abandon this arrangement.

Because he needed to train Namgung Seon personally.

His grandson stood at the very end of Transcendent Apex.

And the most effective way to cross the wall of the Transformation Realm was, naturally, to receive instruction from someone who had already reached it.

“And he died without lasting more than a few exchanges.”

“...Yes.”

The intelligence that had just arrived only made Namgung Ak even more determined not to leave.

Even back when the Flame-Saber Lord Ak Jupae had served as Heaven-Net Platform Lord of the Martial Alliance, he had already been a powerful early-stage Transformation Realm master.

Whatever he had done within the Demonic Cult, it was unlikely to have made him weaker.

And yet someone had killed a man like that in what amounted to almost a single stroke...

“...There is one other matter that concerns us.”

“What is it?”

“The Beggar Union reports that the path of the technique used to defeat Ak Jupae was unlike anything they had ever seen.”

Namgung Ak frowned.

There was only one sword art Mount Hua masters were known for.

The Ninefold Heaven Plum Sword.

What made Mount Hua truly formidable was that they won even with a sword art everyone already knew.

They devoted decades to stubbornly training nothing but the Ninefold Heaven Plum Sword until they reached mastery.

Their opponents knew the Ninefold Heaven Plum Sword and still could not stop it.

Overwhelming refinement.

Absolute dedication to a single sword art.

That was what the Ninefold Heaven Plum Sword symbolized for Mount Hua.

“...It wasn’t the Ninefold Heaven Plum Sword?”

“No.”

“And even the Beggar Union could not identify the technique’s path?”

The Beggar Union might be a den of beggars, but its intelligence network deserved respect.

There was a reason it was counted among the Nine Great Sects as one of the ten great powers of the righteous factions.

“What about the sword marks?”

“We paid the Beggar Union a considerable sum and obtained a reconstruction.”

Normally, a record of sword marks was little different from a rubbing taken directly from a corpse.

But an expert could observe the path a sword had traveled and memorize the marks left upon a body.

This reconstruction had been created in exactly that manner.

“...I’ve seen something similar somewhere before.”

Every martial art possessed a certain internal consistency.

And Sword Sovereign Namgung Ak had once seen a sword path with a consistency similar to this one.

It had been among the sword marks left on the corpse of Ak Seowon, the thirteenth commander of the One-Under-Heaven Corps.

But Namgung Ak could not immediately remember it.